What is wonder? What would it mean to live our lives in wonder or with wonder? Is it possible for wonder to play an integral role in our aesthetic, ethical, and pedagogical experiences? Philosophy is said to begin with wonder. For Plato, wonder is the arche that grounds all philosophical inquiry. I propose to begin my ethical and aesthetic investigation of wonder with Plato, but, unlike Plato who places the imagination’s capacity to be astonished at the bottom of a hierarchy that quests for knowledge and understanding, I will argue that an ethics and aesthetics based on wonder would allow for the imagination to play an active role in all our encounters. First, I look at different philosophical treatments of wonder and then consider the role wonder plays as a virtue. Next I examine the wondrous in relation to aesthetic and ethical experiences, exploring art exhibits and a play, and conclude by drawing upon the many sides of wonder and considering its role in education. In my wanderings on wonder, I seek to value wonder as an integral part of ourselves, in all our imaginings, understandings, growth, and knowledge acquisition.
In this article we share the impact of a training program (Positive Space I and Positive Space II) on pre-service teachers' understandings of and abilities to create safe spaces for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgendered and Queering/Questioning (LGBTQ)
IntroductionResearch has demonstrated that over 75% of Lesbian, Gay and Bi-sexual youth and 95% of Transgendered students do not feel safe at school compared to 20% of heterosexual students (Taylor et al, 2011, 47). The current bullying discourse does not often highlight the vulnerability of sexual minority youth. According to the First National Climate Survey on Homophobia in Canadian Schools (Taylor et al, 2009) "homophobic and transphobic bullying are neither rare nor harmless but major problems that schools need to address" (p. 2). The Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, provincial equity policies, school and school board policies and curricula emphasize "human rights and diversity" however, "LGBTQ students feel unsafe, insulted or harassed," on a daily basis (Taylor as cited in Petz 2011). Compounding this issue is the reality that LGBTQ youth hear and see a lot of homophobia and transphobia in schools, and they don't see adults in leadership positions interrupting this type of discrimination (Goldstein et al, 2007;Kumashiro 2002;Taylor et al, 2011). This is particularly regrettable as research also shows that "the climate is significantly better in the schools that have taken even modest steps to combat homophobia" (Taylor, 2011, para 4). To that end, we are trying to promote anti-oppressive pedagogy as part of our approach to teaching and learning in our faculty of education.Here we share the impact of a training program, Positive Space I (PSI) and Positive Space II (PSII), two three-hour workshops, that have been integrated into
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